law not defining every detail is important

After slavery was abolished, the legal system had established a fundamental principle:

formerly enslaved people were no longer property and could enter labor relationships as legally free persons.

But that does not mean the Constitution itself provided a complete manual specifying:

exactly how many hours a worker could work;

exactly how wages had to be negotiated;

exactly what every labor contract had to contain;

how much authority an employer could exercise;

what economic conditions would constitute genuinely free labor.

Those questions had to be worked out through:

legislation;

courts;

administrative practices;

contracts;

state laws;

labor practices;

political struggles.

And this is where the Reconstruction period becomes particularly important.

There was a major question:

What kinds of labor arrangements were compatible with the newly established legal status of freedom?

A contract could be formally voluntary while still being made under highly unequal economic circumstances.

That distinction should be central to any argument.